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Air Ambulance Crash in Maui.
April, 2006
New York — The deaths of three people in an air ambulance crash in Maui on Wednesday is strikingly familiar to an accident two years earlier when another air ambulance operated by the same company crashed in Laupahoehoe, Hawaii, once again killing all three aboard. Both disasters highlight the fact that the EMS aviation accident rate is close to that of combat flying according to Justin T. Green, an experienced pilot and aviation attorney who has studied this phenomenon for several years.
"The crash of the Hawaii Air Ambulance Cessna 414 is the latest tragedy in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) aviation, which is an industry suffering a severe safety crisis," Mr. Green said. His recent article, When Rescue Is Too Risky, was just published in Trial Magazine.
The National Transportation Safety Board voted to recommend changes that will enhance the safety of emergency medical flights, by closing loopholes that that allow flights in poor visibility conditions if the aircraft is not carrying patients, and prohibiting the dispatch of emergency medical flights without an assessment of the flight risks.
"Accidents that are similar in nature should be an alarm that there's on ongoing problem," said Brian Alexander, an aviation lawyer and experienced pilot, who represented an entire family, killed in Maui in 2000 when a Blue Hawaii tour helicopter went down.
Wednesday's Hawaii Air Ambulance crash and the one in January 2004 both involve the same type of aircraft and both accidents occurred on positioning flights. "The 2004 accident investigation is not even completed," Mr. Alexander pointed out. "The investigators are certain to be looking for common contributing factors."
Justin Green and Brian Alexander are partners at the aviation law firm Kreindler & Kreindler LLP in New York, which is currently representing families who lost loved ones in a number of separate emergency medical flights. Both are experienced pilots and aviation safety specialists. They are available to discuss these issues.
Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, Tradition of Excellence, New York, New Jersey, Boston, Los Angeles.
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